Sentencing for former Rep. William Jefferson will be pushed back to Nov. 13, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled today.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneFormer U.S. Rep. William Jefferson and his wife, Andrea, after Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 counts in his corruption and bribery trial in August. Jefferson originally was scheduled for sentencing Oct. 30 after the New Orleans Democrat was found guilty by a Virginia jury on 11 of 16 corruption charges.

Ellis previously rejected a request by Jefferson's attorneys for a new trial, based partly on information not disclosed to jurors about a sexual relationship between an undercover FBI agent and the key government informant, Virginia businesswoman Lori Mody. Ellis said the information wasn't relevant to the government's case or to Jefferson's defense.

Mody, who taped conversations with Jefferson, didn't testify during the eight-week trial. Prosecutors didn't explain her non-appearance during the trial, but the relationship with the FBI agent, who pretended to be Mody's driver, likely contributed to their decision.

In asking Ellis for a delay in sentencing, Jefferson's attorneys, led by Robert Trout, said a defendant is entitled to receive a pre-sentence report from the federal probation officer at least 35 days before sentencing. Jefferson didn't receive his report until Oct 1, meaning the earliest sentencing could occur under federal rules is Nov. 5, according to the brief filed by his last week.

They asked for another week's delay because of what they called the "complexity of the case."

Jefferson, 62, was convicted Aug. 5 of soliciting bribes, money laundering, depriving citizens of honest services as a member of Congress and turning his congressional office into a racketeering enterprise. He was acquitted of charges of obstruction of justice, violating the Foreign Corrupt Services Act and three honest services counts.

Prosecutors are likely to ask for a sentence of 20 years or more. His attorneys, who are owed more than $5 million by the former congressman, according to a bankruptcy filing by Jefferson and his wife submitted after the guilty verdict, are likely to ask for a significantly lower sentence and that he remain free pending a likely appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

The case centers on charges that Jefferson demanded payments to family owned businesses from business executives in return for his help winning his assistance with projects in Western Africa. His attorneys argued that all the allegations involve private business dealings not official acts as a member of Congress and therefore not covered under the federal bribery statute.